Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Finally we reach Organ Pipe Cactus NM. It is very close to the Mexican border. Lots of border patrol vehicles and posts on the road. The park (oops, you're supposed to call it monument) looks a bit like a desert, cacti and all, but the rangers say it's a cactus forest. Anyway, we like it! Temperatures are not too cold, the environment is quite strange, we've never seen cacti in the wild and now there are sooo many of them. Really beautiful!

The campground is set up quite nicely and despite it being peak season for the park it's far less than half full. This means nice spots for the RV, bit of privacy and absolutely quiet for most of the day except generator hours.

We are staying for 3 nights. Most of day 1 we use for a 1.5 hour walk to an old silver mine, no silver left and not much to see as well, but still a nice walk through that incredible landscape.
Day 2 brings some more walking and a 2 hour fruitless effort from the male part of our party to start a barbie on a cheap BBQ that has a starter pack called idiot-proof. Hmmmm, in the end the steaks go into the frying pan and the barbie burns off over night.
Day 3 we're booked into a trip with the rangers to a road that we can't travel with Shorty, too long. too wide. The rangers give some interesting comments on flora and fauna during that trip, so it's not a bad alternative anyhow. On top of that it's free. Can't ask for more!